The Clown () is a 1976 West German film directed by VojtÃÂch Jasný. It is based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Böll. It was chosen as West Germany's official submission to the 49th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, but did not manage to receive a nomination.
Hans Schnier (Helmut Griem) has earned his living as a clown, though he is in fact a very covert sort of social critic. After enduring a difficult childhood in Bonn during the Second World War, including his mother's fanatic Nazism, he is appalled to discover many of the people he knows and loves swept deeply into involvement in the Catholic Church.